Trump Denies Transition Disarray, Says Organized Process Taking Place

Trump bucking the tradition of transparency for a president or president-elect and leaving his home without the pool of journalists there to cover his every move.

Mnuchin declined to comment to reporters at Trump Tower about Cabinet picks, but said the team was “making sure we get the biggest tax bill passed, the biggest tax changes since Reagan”.

Internally, turmoil over the team’s power structure has further slowed progress.

The list of world leaders was released hours after Trump said in a tweet that he had spoken to several world leaders.

Trump, who campaigned against lobbyists and promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington, has faced intense criticism from Democrats in recent days over the number of lobbyists the transition tapped to serve in key transition posts.

The turbulent, unpredictable start to Trump’s administration-in-waiting signals how he and his team might operate once in the White House – and suggests his presidency could be marked by dysfunction, at least early on. The State Department has said it had yet to hear from Trump’s transition team, raising the prospect of the Republican holding the meeting without any input from career diplomats with deep experience dealing with Japan.

Trump has pledged to take on lobbyists in the White House and has already released a series of ethics proposals that would crack down on the industry.

Inauguration Day is just over two months away.

But Trump has arrived late to the starting line.

The nascent administration plans to move forward amid reports of back-biting, rivalries and other troubles within his transition team. “This is such an exciting time, I’ve got to tell you”.

In a series of tweets Wednesday, Trump attacked a Times story about firings and infighting that have left his transition team in a “state of disarray” – reporting backed up by CNN and other major news organizations.

Events of the past week within the Trump camp were described as a “knife fight” by one insider.

Among them: ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is up for secretary of state; Sen. “The way I’m leaning is to work from the outside and not from the inside”, Carson told The Washington Post.

“Dr. Carson doesn’t think he’s qualified to run a federal agency”, Williams said. “Things are in pretty good shape right now”.

One close U.S. ally had to reach out to multiple contacts in the Trump world before successfully arranging a phone call between the President-elect and their head of state, a diplomatic source told CNN. “Both would be great choices”.

Mr Mnuchin, 53, chairman of Dune Capital Management and Dune Entertainment Partners, is a former Goldman Sachs banker who was the Trump campaign’s chief fund raiser.

Two people working with Rogers were also out: Matthew Freedman, a former DIA innovation adviser and former Bush transition official, was focused on the National Security Council, and Kevin O’Connor, a former Bush administration official at the Department of Justice, was working on DOJ.

On Nov. 13, Trump had defended his transition team during an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes”. But Politico reported Tuesday that consulting work he did for foreign governments and companies, and the money he accepted from places like Qatar, Venezuela and from Iranian exiles, could prove problematic – not to say that Trump repeatedly criticized the Clinton Foundation for taking similar gifts from foreign governments.

Former GOP national security official Eliot Cohen blasted Mr Trump’s team on Twitter, calling them “angry, arrogant”.